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First Look

In the history of turbine-powered aviation, the Germans were the first to fly with the Heinkel 178 (followed by the British Gloster E.28). The Germans were also first with an operational combat aircraft with the Me 262 (followed by the Gloster Meteor). The first purpose-built turbine-powered trainer was the Fokker S.14 Machtrainer, though the first to go into large-scale production was the Fouga CM.170 Magister. To put this into context, the S.14 first flew in 1951, the CM.170 in 1952, the T-37 in 1954, and the T-2 Buckeye in 1958.

The Magister entered production 1954 with over 900 examples built. A carrier-capable variant was also produced as the CM.175 Zephyr. The type was produced by Fouga in France and license-built by Heinkel-Messerschmitt in Germany, IAI in Israel, and Valmet in Finland. The Magister has seen military service in at least 25 countries and can be found flying in the warbird community today.

I remember being told by several knowledgeable hobby experts that trainer kits never sell. That was certainly true a decade or two ago, but not so much today. Look at the wealth of trainer subjects that have been released in the last few years in a variety of scales, and now we have the first Fouga Magister produced in 1/48 scale injection-molded styrene.

Kinetic took on this project with a good team of experts to create this beautiful new kit. Molded in light gray styrene, this kit is rendered on three parts trees plus one tree of clear parts and one small fret of photo-etch parts. But if you buy today, Kinetic will double your order and send you two kits in one box! Sorry, I was channeling a bad commercial. There are indeed two complete kits in this box, so you can build two of the five subjects provided in the kit or look for some aftermarket options.